ENGLISH LANGUAGE

Directions (1-5) : Read the following passage carefully and answer the questions given below it. Certain words/phrases have been printed in bold to help you locate them while answering some of the questions.
Mihir and Mahadev lived in the same village, While Mahadev owned the largest shop in the village. Mihir was a poor farmer. Both had large families. with many sons. daughters-in-law and grandchildren. One day, Mihir, tired of not being able to make ends meet. decided to leave the village and move to the city where they were sure to make enough to feed everyone. They said their goodbyes. packed their few belongings and set off. When night fell. they stopped under a large tree. There was a stream running nearby, where. they could refresh themselves. Mihir told his sons to clear the area below the tree. He told his wife to fetch water. He instructed his daughters-in-law to make up the fire and stafted cutting wood from the tree himself. Now, in that branches of the tree sat a thief. He watched as Mihir’s family worked together, He also noticed they had nothing to cook. Mihir’s wife too thought the same, for she said to her husband, “Everything is ready. But what shall we eat ?” Mihir raised his hands to heaven and said, “Don’t worry. He is watching all this from above. He will help us.”
The thief was worried. He had seen that the family was large and worked well together. Surely they did not know he was hiding in the branches ? He decided to make a quick getaway. He climbed down swiftly when they were not looking and ran for his life. But, he left behind his bundle of stolen jewels and money, which dropped down into Mihir’s lap. He opened it and jumped with joy when he saw the contents. The family promptly gathered its belongings and returned to the village. There was great excitement when they told everyone how they got rich.
Mahadev thought this was a nice quick way to earn some money ! He commanded his family to pack some clothes and they set off as if on a journey. They stopped under the same tree and Mahadev started commanding everyone as Mihir had done. But no one in his family was willing to obey orders. They were used to having servants wait on them – so the one who went to the river to fetch water had a nice bath. The one who went to gather wood for the fire went off to sleep beneath the tree. And Mahadev only ordered everyone about, not conversation that they had rehearsed carefully. Mahadev’s wife said, “Everything is ready. But what shall we eat ?” yahadev raised his hands upwards and said, “Don’t worry, lie is watching all this from above. He will help us”.
At this, the thief jumped down from the tree, knife in hand. Seeing him, everyone started running helter skelter to save themselves. The thief stole everything. Mahadev and his family had to return to the village empty-handed, having lost all the jewellery and gold they had taken with them.

Which of the following cannot be said about Mihir’s family ?
(A) They respected and obeyed Mihir.
(B) They were so poor that they sometimes had to starve.
(C) The had no friends in the village when they were poor.
(1) None (2) Only (C)
(3) Only (13) and (C)
(4) Only (B)
(5) All (A), (B) and (C)

Why did Mihir and his family decide to camp under the ‘thief s tree’ ?
(1) Being a large family they knew they could capture the thief.
(2) It was a convenient spot to camp for the night.
(3) It was the only tree large enough to shelter the whole family.
(4) There was a stream nearby and wood to build a house.
(5) Exhausted after the day’s travel they couldn’t walk any more.

Why did the thief leave the valuables he had stolen behind ?
(1) Seeing Mihir’s faith in God the thief was filled with remorse.
(2) Feeling sorry for Mihir’s family he decided to donate the valuables to them.
(3) He was afraid that God would punish him for stealing.
(4) In his hurry to run away he forgot to take the valuables along.
(5) He was confident that they were so well hidden that they would not be found.

Which of the following best describes Mahadev ?
(1) He was a rich businessman.
(2) He bullied his wife so she obeyed him.
(3) He paid his servants well to look alter his family’s needs.
(4) He was greedy and had cheated Mihir.
(5) He was brave and decided to trick the thief.

Why did Mihir’s family return to the village ?
(1) To show off their new found wealth.
(2) To buy back their land and start a business.
(3) They had no need to shift to the city.
(4) To share their wealth with the other villagers.
(5) They wanted to sing God’s praises to all the villagers.

What made Mihir utter the phrase. “He is watching all this from above”?
(1) He had spotted the thief and wanted to frighten him off.
(2) He was telling his wife to trust God to look after them.
(3) It was a warning to his family members to stick together.
(4) He was begging the thief for help to feed his family.
(5) None of these

Which of the following is TRUE in the context of the passage ?
(1) Mahadev planned to seek his fortune in the city as Mihir had.
(2) Mihir’s family preferred to live in the city.
(3) Mahadev had no intention of moving to the city.
(4) Mahadev lost his entire life savings to the thief.
(5) The thief only robbed those whom he did not like.

Why did the thief return to the tree ?
(1) To plot how to get his money back
(2) He thought no one would look for him there.
(3) To keep a watch on Mahadev’s family.
(4) Not mentioned in the passage
(5) None of these

Why was the thief not afraid of Mahadev’s family ?
(1) They had not brought their servants along to protect them.
(2) Seeing their wealth hr suspected them of stealing his
(3) lie had weapons to defunct himself.
(4) Mahatlev’s family was not large as Mihir’s
(5) Mahadev’s family was not united and obedient.

How did the villagers react to Mihir’s newfound wealth ?
(1) They tried hard to coax him to reveal the secret of his wealth
(2) They followed his example and became more devout.
(3) They pretended to he happy -for him but were secretly je:ii ous.
(4) They each plotted to visit the tree and get rich quickly.
(5) There was great excitemel

Directions (16-25) : Read each sentence to find out whether there is any grammatical error or idiomatic error in it. The error, if any, will be in one part of the sentence. The number 01 that part is the answer. If there is no error, the answer is (5). (Ignore errors of punctuation, if any)

The majority of the population believes (1)/ that the stock market is recovered (2)/ and that it is the (3)/ right time to buy shares. (4)/ No error (5)

Directions (26- 30) : In each question below a sentence with four words printed in bold type is given. These are numbered as (1), (2), (3) and (4). One of these four words printed in bold may be either wrongly spelt orinappropriate in the context of the sentence. Find out the word which is wrongly spelt or inappropriate if any. The number of that word is your answer. If all the words printed in bold are correctly spelt and also appropriate in the context of the sentence, mark (5) i.e. ‘All correct’ as your answer.

He was a member (1)/ of the orignal (2)/ committee which drafted (3)/ these recommendations. (4)/ All correct (5)

Directions (31-35) : Rearrange the following six sentences. (A), (B), (C),
(D), (E) and (F) in the proper sequence to form a meaningful paragraph: then answer the questions given below them.
(A) A few minutes later he was hauled back on hoard the ship, on the captain’s orders.
(B) One of the crew began to complain and moan about the situa-
tion and no one could silence him.
(C) Marvelling at the change, the passengers asked for an explanation,
to which the captain replied, ‘We never appreciate how well off we are in a situation until we fall into a worse one”.
(D) During a voyage a great storm arose.
(E) In exasperation the captain ordered him to be thrown overboard.
(F) To everyone’s surprise, the man immediately went back to his post and silently began to work.

Which of the following should be the THIRD sentence after rearrangement?
(1) A
(2) B
(3) C
(4) D
(5) E

Directions (36 – 40) : Which of the phrases (1), (2), (3) and (4) given below should replace the phrase given in bold in the following sentence to make the sentence meaningful and grammatically correct. If the sentence is correct as it is and 00 correction is required. mark (5) as the answer.

Ensure we have the necessary clearance is the responsibility of the legal department.
( 1) Ensuring we have
(2) To ensure having
(3) We have been ensured
(4) Ensuring us having
(5) No correction required

They have decided to go ahead and implement which was discussedat last month’s conference in Chennai.
(1) what we had discussed
(2) whatever discussion
(3) that being discussed
(4) which has been discussed
(5) No correction required

To reduce costs, we should replace our current system by much efficient one.
(1) through more efficient
(2) efficiently by
(3) with a more efficient
(4) for better efficiency
(5) No correction required

Staff in the district ofﬁces can easily monitor whether the payments are being made in time.
(1) easily be monitored
(2) monitor easier whether
(3) easy to monitor that
(4) monitoreasily
(5) No correction required

Directions (41 — 50) : In the following passage there are blanks. each of which has been numbered.
These numbers are printed below the passage and against each. five words are suggested. one of which fits the blank appropriately. Find out the appropriate word in each case. One rainy day While driving me home from school my father stopped to offer a frail old man a lift. Though he was headed in the opposite (41). my father insisted. By the time we (42) home it was late and 1 was tired and (43) with my father. That night, my father (44) me a bedtime story as usual — A (45) Em peror was once asked “Sire, while you(46) rich and powerful. your teacher doesn‘t even (47) a piece of land yet you visit him. (95) don’t you summon him to court ’9“ The Emperor (49) and said. “You are mistaken, my teacher is(50) than 1 am. My land can be lost in a war but he possesses knowledge which can never be stolen.“ “The old
man was my teacher” my father coneluded.
I have never forgotten the lesson my father ‘taught‘ me that day.